what is the best kickstart for amiga 2000

[Traindriver69]

Hi all
I have an amiga 1500 which as you know is really a 2000 but has kickstart 1.3 was just thinking what is the best kickstart to have installed for this machine to get the best out of it for compatibilty for fun or best to keep original any thoughts would be very welcome.
many thanks

[Daedalus]

It all depends on what you want to do with it. Running more up-to-date software would typically need a newer Kickstart - 3.1 is a decent option if it's still stock, or if you have some expansion RAM and a hard drive in there, 3.1.4 is the latest OS available for it. If you want to run the old games from floppy, then 1.3 is probably fine.

[TjLaZer]

For a stock machine with a HD and some fast ram would do 3.1

[Tajmaster]

Mine has 3.1 and functions fine with a Commodore 030 card and GVP SCSI card installed but as others have said, it depends what you want from it

[MiaM]

A factor that hasn't been mentioned yet is what you have access to. If you have an empty eprom and an eprom programmer I chime in with those who suggest 3.1.

But if you have a 2.04 rom sitting unused or if you can buy one far cheaper than any other rom, and you aren't interested in running some of the older games, then 2.04 is a decent choice. Combined with Workbench 2.1 it will make the operating system feel almost the same way as 3.x would.

As already stated, what expansions you have, if any, does also affect this. If it is stock without any hard disk then there isn't much point i using anything better than 1.3.

Btw it wasn't just the UK specific A1500 badge-engineerd A2000 that had 1.3. All A2000 machines had 1.3 until 2.04 became available which were a few years later than the A2000 and A500 release.

[Traindriver69]

I was considering 2.04 I have a Buddha IDE running a 4 gb cf card with 8 Mb fast ram but was wondering What I would gain if anything with 3.1

[Jope]

If you intend to run Workbench, there is a surprisingly large number of software that requires 3.0 minimum. Basically 2.04 is only a good idea if you already have that ROM and don't wish to spend any money or effort to get 3.1 or newer.

To run 3.1.4 and up, you should definitely have a hard disk and 8MB of RAM.

[AmigaHope]

Originally Posted by Jope

If you intend to run Workbench, there is a surprisingly large number of software that requires 3.0 minimum. Basically 2.04 is only a good idea if you already have that ROM and don't wish to spend any money or effort to get 3.1 or newer.

To run 3.1.4 and up, you should definitely have a hard disk and 8MB of RAM.

I don't really think you need 8M, but you do need at least some fast RAM, and definitely some mass storage to load libraries and whatnot.

Fortunately it's not that expensive to find expansions for the A2000. On-demand ebay prices are high, but if you wait you can find the stuff you need affordably. Plus you can just stick a TF534 in it for relatively cheap if you need something modern and available.